Saturday, October 22, 2011

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Santa Barbara’s new schools chief, Dr. David Cash, announced at a public forum Thursday night that the current system of school discipline has been a failure and that he’s committed to a major overhaul, beginning later this year.

“It’s very clear that the school discipline model does not work and has not worked for a while,” said Cash, speaking to about a hundred people attending a forum at Franklin Elementary School. Organized by PUEBLO and Importa, the forum was billed as a venue for discussing the gang injunction proposed by Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez and District Attorney Joyce Dudley. While Cash did not address the proposed injunction itself, he said the traditional method of disciplining students by excluding them from campus — either by suspension or expulsion — had serious problems.

Paul Wellman

Pueblo sponsored forum discussing a gang injunction on Oct. 20, 2011

“We know when we exclude students, the overall school environment does not improve, and it has an extraordinarily negative impact on the students and their families,” Cash said, adding that the district remains committed to providing a safe and secure learning environment for the district’s students. “Our goal is to change the culture at our schools,” he said, by relying more on mediation, counseling, parent-teacher conferences, “and by creating an environment where students feel empowered.” While Cash has been discussing this shift at school board meetings over the past month, school board member Monique Limon —who attended the forum — said he’s been focused on this practically from the day he took over from his predecessor, Brian Sarvis.

Cash described the new approach as part of the “restorative justice” model: “We will ask who has been harmed, what needs to be done to repair it, and who is responsible for fixing it.” Proponents of the restorative justice approach for juvenile offenders contend that it’s much more effective at producing safe campuses, and at dramatically less cost. In addition, they contend, the rate of recidivism is much lower.

While Cash provided no statistics to back up his claim, Limon said the board has been studying the matter for the past month and that various zero-tolerance and get-tough policies have had little impact. The numbers, she said, just keep going up and up. Cash said the restorative justice model was used in the school district where he previously worked — Clovis — and that he hopes to have a more definite proposal before the school board within the next few months. “I’m not here tonight to tell you about all the great stuff we’re doing because, quite frankly, we’re not doing enough,” he said. “If we were, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”

Cash was the evening’s clean-up speaker, following on the heels of former Santa Barbara city councilmember — and youth advocate — Babatunde Folayemi, who was scathing in his denunciation of the proposed gang injunction. “There is a war going on against your children and against your family in this community, and the gang injunction is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. Injunctions, he said, “are basically a modern-day apartheid, creating prisons without walls.” He suggested that the Police Department might be eligible for more grant funding if it gets an injunction in place, but said injunctions are unnecessary. He said he personally was involved in brokering three truces between Eastside and Westside gang members during his 20 years working with gang members and at-risk teens. He urged those in attendance to organize politically and to make sure they understood their legal rights. To that end, Folayemi said he was starting a new organization — ”A Family Legal Clinic” — so people will know, for example, that they can deny police officers entry to their home if the officers lack a search warrant. He said Santa Barbara is criminalizing its youth, and that young people need to know not to provide officers with incriminating evidence.

Where Folayemi spoke with an anguished rage, UCSB graduate student and stand-up comedian Tomas Carrasco was more low-key in his delivery. If people want to really fight gang violence, he said, jobs and education were far more effective than law enforcement. “I’d rather be talking about the school-to-college pipeline than the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Carrasco. The best indicator of future success, he said, is school engagement. To that end, schools need to figure out how to better involve Latino kids who make up 67 percent of the elementary school population and half of secondary school enrollment. Studies show that Latinos and blacks tend to learn better in groups than as individuals; teaching practices should shift to exploit this opportunity. Teachers should focus more on what the students bring to the table than on what they lack and encourage students to believe the sky’s the limit on their achievement.

To better involve parents, parent-teacher conferences should be scheduled on weekends, rather than weekdays when both parents are likely working. “If you want to solve the gang problem,” he said, “the answer is jobs.” As for gang injunctions, he said, “They do not work. Over and out. And they racialize our community.” Far more effective, he said, were counseling, training, mental health, and jobs.

The issue of the gang injunction has come up in many of the candidates’ forums, and three of the four candidates who oppose the proposed injunction — Cathy Murillo, Sebastian Aldana, and Cruzito Cruz — showed up at the forum. Iya Falcone, who also opposes the injunctions, was not there. None of the candidates favoring the measure were on hand.

CORRECTION: According to candidate Sharon Byrne, she was in attendance for this forum. We apologize for the omission.

Comments

"They racialize our community." Are these people fundamentally illiterate?As for restorative justice, this term is either redundant or self canceling, I'm not sure which. What I do know is the reason suspensions don't work is because the parents don't give a crap about their kids nor take responsibility for their kids. I could get on board with something like restorative justice if the parents were ALSO held absolutely financially and legally liable, regardless of their economic level, for their gang banging low life children.

I get it. Be a low life thug, stab a couple of homies, scare the guilt ridden honkees, then they will give us a job! Or better yet they will just pay us in tax free cash like they do in Oakland. I am all for counseling, group get togethers, public forums, but I am totally against one tax payer dollar paying off these punks.I would love to see these gangs try to get a foothold over the hill in Santa Ynez. Want to take a guess why they are not there?

I have a question that may seem naïve but I'd rather admit I don't know something than pretend I do: Is it true that parents are being turned in to Child Protective Services for simple corporal punishment of their kids? If this is true, it would explain a lot.

It's a mixed lot in the sense that some parents don't care at all "My boy is a good boy and he goes to church every Sunday" is heard, then there are the parents who are working all day and much of the night whose kids are raised by the schools and the Boys/Girls clubs who of course do not get any real discipline.

When I went to La Colina back in the '70's I remember kids who would get suspended all the time and I'd wonder how they got away with it. If I had been suspended once the world would have come to an end in my house unless it was a case of defending myself in a fight. These other kids seemed to see it as a three-day vacation.

Once again the chickens have come home to roost: Many kids today simply have no fear of authority and they know that nothing bad will happen to them if they terrorize other kids, talk back to the teachers, disrupt class, or are truant. The old ways worked, and it's time to admit that the social revolution of the '60's while being needed in some contexts, failed in others and needs to be fine tuned. Our culture is a toilet that needs to be flushed.

The solution is easy, just quit being mamsy pamby. Kids whose skin is not white at birth should be put on a path to become fighters. In the military. As Empire Amerika spreads it's wings around the globe we will need more and more trigger pullers. Start their military training at 5 and problem solved!

“Our goal is to change the culture at our schools,” he said, by relying more on mediation, counseling, parent-teacher conferences, “and by creating an environment where students feel empowered.”

Are they kidding?! These punks are already in an environment where they ARE empowered. They've been empowered to intimidate teachers and fellow students. They've been empowered to disrupt classrooms and interfere with the task of teaching. They've been empowered to sell drugs and conduct other gang activity on or near the schools. They've had the power long enough. It's time to take the power away from these little punks and put it back where it belongs; In the hands of the parents and the teachers. And, PUEBLO? Stay out of it. You've done enough damage already.

Hey starly, the concept of the youth serving in the military is nothing new.In fact in many of those "social democracies" such as Sweden, Finnland, Switzerland & Denmark many of the anti-capitalist, anti-military, pro-socialism lefties admire so much have a law that says you must serve 1 or 2 years in that country's military when you turn a certain age.Don't matter what color your skin is, you're born there, you're a citizen, you're of the specified age, YOU SERVE.Maybe we (the USA) SHOULD consider what you mention: Impressed military service @ a young age.Give those little homies, regardless of race, the opportunity the dirty work that needs to be done on a daily basis & that they'd enjoy doing, especially if it's for a paycheck :) henry

Babatunde Folayemi !@#$%^@#??. How cliché' to have the angry guy up on his soap box telling us the world is going to end unless we give him a job at a family legal clinic to save all of our kids wretched souls. The search warrant argument doesn't work for me either. DUH! I saw this joker on channel 17 a while back. Tooting his horn and bagging on anyone who gave him a dose of reality when they called in.

I agree with the majority of the comments in this section. Yes, billclaussen, not only is one turned in to CPS for "corporal punishment" (aka, a spanking on the butt) by any anonymous jacka$$ on the planet, which MUST be followed up on. (Note also there are no repercussions for the filing of false reports.) But you also have Judges working the Family Law court putting no spanking clauses on people for no reason when some of these judges have never even had a KID! I would like to know Babatunde Folayemi's parenting record? Parents need more accountability in this mess.

I am afraid the "restorative justice" model will not work for me. So after the fact, someone is killed, hurt, bullied in school, sold drugs, you are going to give us emotional restitution?